


Reunion

by Anonymous



Category: Austin - Blake Shelton (Song), Original Work
Genre: Getting Back Together, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 08:21:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24347902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Austin has a change of heart.
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3
Collections: Anonymous, Jukebox 2020





	Reunion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Joanne_c](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joanne_c/gifts).



People call him Austin but he was born Agustín Aguilar.

Jack started it, years ago when they were still in college. It wasn't because Austin was where he was from; sure, his hometown had that name, even if it was ten times or twenty times smaller than the place they all assumed it was, but that wasn't the reason. Jack just had this accent that made _Agustín_ sound like it came from Martian instead of Spanish and he tried, he really did, but in the end they went with _Austin_ just so nobody needed to cringe when they talked. It was a different kind of nickname than when people back home called him _Tino_ ; the way Jack said it was different, at least, when he looked at him the way he did, and when he smiled at him the way he did. There was something there that nobody else had, just for him. 

It had turned out Austin's roommate was Jack's best friend from high school, so that was how they met. Jack played baseball and Austin was on the swim team and maybe there wasn't a whole lot of overlap between the two, but sometimes Jack came to the pool to swim laps and they'd hit the showers after and Austin knows if he'd had the guts to glance in his direction like he'd wanted to, he would've seen him glancing back. He told him that one night, at their ten year reunion, kinda drunk but not so drunk he didn't know what he was saying. They leaned against the wall together, and Jack told him things he'd never said out loud before. 

He said, "Y'know, you were the one that got away." He turned his head and looked at him, and smiled that smile just like he'd used to. He said, "God, I was stupid in love with you." 

And in a fit of who knows what - maybe courage or maybe something else - Austin walked away just for two minutes and when he came back, he scrawled his number on Jack's palm with the shitty red marker he'd found. He held onto his hand a second longer than he needed to. He held onto his wrist and Jack frowned down at him. He'd always been the taller one, the big guy, the strong guy, just in a good way, like he might pick him up and not push him down. He'd let his auburn hair grow and it was tied back but there were wisps of it escaping, so Austin reached up and brushed it back. 

"Call me," he said, and he left before they could say anything more. But he'd barely gotten back to his hotel when his cell began to ring. 

"I didn't mean you should call me in twenty minutes," he said, and Jack laughed.

"You also really didn't tell me not to," he replied. "Look, Austin, can I see you before you leave town?"

There was no time, though; his flight home was so early that there was just no way to make it happen, or so Austin tried to tell himself. He left. He flew home, drove back out to his family's ranch and went back to work. The family business is horses and that was what Austin went to school for; he was thirty-two years old by then and working on their finances. He told himself work was important. Family was important. But the next night when Jack called, past ten, he picked up and they talked till two. 

They talked every night for a month. Then, one night, Jack called from the only hotel in town; he'd driven down six hours after work at the repair shop he'd set up with his sister once his baseball career had fizzled out in the minors. And Austin maybe should've said no, should've said it was a bad time or he was tired or talking didn't mean much, didn't really mean anything, so maybe he should go back home. He didn't say that, though; he got into his truck and he drove into town and he met him there, went up to his room even though the girl at the desk knew their maid who'd probably tell his mom first thing in the morning. He went up there and he knocked and when Jack opened the door, all he had on was his jeans. He wasn't there to talk. Austin figured that was fine, because they'd done so much talking already. 

There were arguments before he left home. Not many, because he didn't have too much to say, just that yes, he'd gone to town to meet a man, and yes, that meant precisely what they thought it did. His mom said she wouldn't tell his father, and she could pay to keep it a secret. He told her no. He left. Maybe Jack's tumbledown old place wasn't exactly like where he'd grown up, but nobody cared if he was gay or not. Except Jack, he guessed, but that made sense - Jack was the one he was sleeping with. 

For a while, it was easy enough. They shared a bed. They shared a bathroom, and a kitchen, and Jack was a great cook, and it didn't matter to him that Austin had no money that wasn't his family's. But it turned out he couldn't do it. He went home. There was never a moment when he didn't regret it.

There's a scar on Jack's knee from the surgery that ended his baseball career, but he says it doesn't bother him too much; he says he was never a great player anyway. He would've never gone to college if not for the scholarship that took him there, he'd've just found himself a job and put some money away for the shop he'd always wanted. His sister does the books and he fixes engines, fixes outboard motors for fishing boats guys take up to the lake, fixes anything and everything because his brain's just kinda like that. 

Jack fixes boats, and cars, and motorcycles. Austin teaches kids how to ride at the stables just outside of town. He doesn't lie about who he is; when people ask his name, he says it's Austin.


End file.
